Gargantua and Pantagruel eBook

Do not trouble yourself about anything here, said
the priestess to the friar; if you be but satisfied,
we are. Here below, in these circumcentral regions,
we place the sovereign good, not in taking and receiving,
but in bestowing and giving; so that we esteem ourselves
happy, not if we take and receive much of others,
as perhaps the sects of teachers do in your world,
but rather if we impart and give much. All I
have to beg of you is that you leave us here your
names in writing, in this ritual. She then opened
a fine large book, and as we gave our names one of
her mystagogues with a gold pin drew some lines on
it, as if she had been writing; but we could not see
any characters.

This done, she filled three glasses with fantastic
water, and giving them into our hands, said, Now,
my friends, you may depart, and may that intellectual
sphere whose centre is everywhere and circumference
nowhere, whom we call god, keep you in his almighty
protection. When you come into your world, do
not fail to affirm and witness that the greatest treasures
and most admirable things are hidden underground, and
not without reason.

Ceres was worshipped because she taught mankind the
art of husbandry, and by the use of corn, which she
invented, abolished that beastly way of feeding on
acorns; and she grievously lamented her daughter’s
banishment into our subterranean regions, certainly
foreseeing that Proserpine would meet with more excellent
things, more desirable enjoyments, below, than she
her mother could be blessed with above.

What do you think is become of the art of forcing
the thunder and celestial fire down, which the wise
Prometheus had formerly invented? ’Tis
most certain you have lost it; ’tis no more
on your hemisphere; but here below we have it.
And without a cause you sometimes wonder to see whole
towns burned and destroyed by lightning and ethereal
fire, and are at a loss about knowing from whom, by
whom, and to what end those dreadful mischiefs were
sent. Now, they are familiar and useful to us;
and your philosophers who complain that the ancients
have left them nothing to write of or to invent, are
very much mistaken. Those phenomena which you
see in the sky, whatever the surface of the earth
affords you, and the sea, and every river contain,
is not to be compared with what is hid within the bowels
of the earth.

For this reason the subterranean ruler has justly
gained in almost every language the epithet of rich.
Now when your sages shall wholly apply their minds
to a diligent and studious search after truth, humbly
begging the assistance of the sovereign God, whom
formerly the Egyptians in their language called The
Hidden and the Concealed, and invoking him by that
name, beseech him to reveal and make himself known
to them, that Almighty Being will, out of his infinite
goodness, not only make his creatures, but even himself
known to them.

Thus will they be guided by good lanterns. For
all the ancient philosophers and sages have held two
things necessary safely and pleasantly to arrive at
the knowledge of God and true wisdom; first, God’s
gracious guidance, then man’s assistance.